What has improved your game most in the past year?

Setup my camera with a tripod and took video's of my break. Reviewed them, compared them to the break analysis's hosted on youtube, made corrections, and taped again. This is where my improvement has been most noticeable this year. Some how I need to figure out how to bear down and play seriously rather than just banging balls and having fun with the guys or when I'm playing at home. Its a balance I'm having a hard time working on. This is my goal for 2011.
Mark
 
My biggest improvement came a little over a year ago and it was a different way to aim. I started learning this system from a DVD I bought and a friend of mine came up with a simpler way to use the system that was on the DVD. Shots that used to give me a fit trying to make are much easier now that I know where to hit the balls.

James
 
Fundamentals!

I believe most misses occur because of mechanical issues. I'm not talking about the shots we inexplicably get down and shoot without aiming. I'm referring to the shots we miss when we have aimed carefully.

I think most of us who've played a while aim intuitively. Our brain knows how to aim the shot. Where we get into trouble is not trusting that aim. But an even bigger factor is not delivering our cue on the proper path. If the cue is not delivered correctly, we miss. When we miss, we wonder how we could have aimed it wrong? Then we start listening to the "voices."

So what I work on whenever I get the opportunity is mechanics. I want my swing plane aligned--right foot, shoulder and ulna bone (funny bone) of right elbow, all vertically inline. I also want to be sure my dominant eye is over the cue. (This matter is individual. Great players use different methods--dominant eye, binocular [chin centered], or variations of each. The important thing is consistency, so your brain sees the same same image every time.)

I start with practice strokes along the rail seams to make sure my cue is traveling straight. Then I'll place a chalk on the middle diamond of the short rail (so I can see it!), cueball on the spot, and stroke the cueball hard to see if I'm putting any spin on the ball. When I can repeat a straight rebound several times. I'll put a ball on the short rail middle diamond and shoot into it. If the cueball rebounds straight back, it's a true stroke. It requires a really accurate stroke to get a perfect rebound.

Then I proceed to long diagonal straight in shots. Object ball 2/3 to the pocket. I start with stop shots. I don't want the cueball to move after I make the shot, and I don't want to see it spinning either. Since there is no real aiming--it's dead straight--any deviation is mechanical. This is a very telling exercise. After stop shots, I'll shoot draw and follow shots.

It amazes me how easy it is to shoot long 1/2 ball cut shots, after doing these exercises. These are normally pretty challenging, even for pros. But if your stroke is true, they go in like magic.
 
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This is my list of things that helped my game the most this year
1) Instructions from Fran Crimi about my stance
2) Instructions from one former filipino pro about my grip and stroke
3) Speed control drills
4) AZBilliards forum
 
Learning to keep a 33 1/3 degree angle playing 9 ball. I'm not kidding!!!!!!!! This makes play po so easy.
 
Improvement

Three 8 hour days in a row with Randy G helped my game more than anything else. And working on what he told me to work on is a close second. There is absolutely no substitute for structured practice. Period.
 
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